TweetOBox: A Twitter Client Built for Windows

TweetOBox is a new Twitter client for Windows that supports plug-ins and doesn't require a framework to run.

If you're tired of Adobe AIR-based Twitter clients dragging your system down, or if you're a Windows user who wants a Twitter client that's specific to Windows, try TweetOBox. By itself, the app is a straightforward single-pane Twitter client that can be modified to show tweets from the people you follow, messages that mention you by name, retweets, and more. Additionally, the app allows you to quickly search and fitter your Twitter stream by user or keyword.

The app advertises itself as being "native to Windows," but it does require some additional components be downloaded before it runs. Once you have it installed though, it's a highly customizable Twitter app that even has an open framework so other developers can build plug-ins to extend its features.

TweetOBox is a brand new app, so there aren't many plug-ins available right now. Even so, the developers behind it are looking for other people to help build plug-ins and add-ons to make the app even more powerful. As it stands however, the app is pretty solid. It's partially a Web client, so every time you launch the app it has to connect to authenticate you to Twitter but also to launch cloud-based components of the app and check for updates.

Once you have the app open, it works much like any other single-pane Twitter client. Your tweets appear in chronological order from newest to oldest, and you can post to Twitter by clicking the "tweet" button at the top of the display. You can customize the display by clicking the "work area" tab on the left side of the window. You can always return to the default home screen by clicking the "home" tab.

Searching and filtering are also easy to do. Next to the "tweet" button is the search bar, and you can click the bar to search your entire Twitter stream or select only to search messages that mention your name specifically. At the top of the list of recent tweets, you can filter the home screen by user or topic. Once you create a filter, it sticks until you remove it.

TweetOBox is powerful on its own, but when you combine it with plug-ins, you can extend the power of the app. Since the app doesn't have many extensions just yet, it's missing a lot of its promise. It also is a big of a resource hog, and froze up on me a couple of times on a lower-powered system. Even so, on a powerful system it can be a great alternative to other Twitter clients that depend in Adobe AIR, for example.